Mutually Assured Destruction as its acronym implies is MAD.

As I was engaging in an earlier discussion on this blog, I had some thoughts around the issue which I wanted to explore further here. Mutually Assured Destruction of course is the term most generally used to describe the reason behind the Cold War nuclear arms race. In other words, nuclear weapons serve as a deterrent to your enemy because if you both use them you will both die. I find the idea abhorrent quite frankly. MAD is often used as a justification to continue to stockpile these ludicrous weapons and there is really no proof that it works. An Air Force Colonel discusses this question in the article Mutually Assured Destruction Revisited at http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj97/win97/parrin.html Here’s a quote from the article: “Nuclear weapons have been no more useful in stopping war than the vaunted Maginot line at stopping Hitler.”

Why must our ideas appeal to the baser side of the human spirit? Were we not made a “little lower than the angels?” Yet, we act as if we are barely above the animals. Where is our creativity and imagination?

Why not a policy of Mutually Assured CONSTRUCTION? A policy that appeals to the positive yearnings in all of us. I believe that if we treat everyone with dignity and respect, it will be reciprocated. The Golden Rule applied on an international level.

As Theodore Roszack once said, “People try nonviolence for a week and when it ‘doesn’t work’ they go back to violence which hasn’t worked for centuries.”

We can do better, people. If we are a little lower than the angels, I think it’s time we started acting like it.

Mene Tekal